Patty Smyth rocked it out with two singing appearances last night on Jimmy Fallon. Later in the show she performed “Build a Fire,” the first single from her new album called “It’s Time.”
Earlier in the show she and Jimmy dedicated “Goodbye to You” to former president Donald Trump. Patty was on fire last night. Her voice sounded great. Buy her new record!
I interviewed Kurt Vonnegut for his 80th birthday in 2002. His wife, photographer Jill Krementz, helped put it together. I miss Kurt a lot (and so many others). Here’s the piece.
It was perhaps no mere coincidence in the grand scheme of the universe that the birthday of the great writer Kurt Vonnegut falls on Veterans’ Day.
Vonnegut, who becomes an octogenarian Monday, lived through the firebombing of Dresden, Germany, as an American prisoner of war in 1945. This seminal event became not only the basis of his classic novel Slaughterhouse-Five, but became the theme of his extensive anti-war writings.
Vonnegut has lived in New York and been highly visible for over 25 years. In some ways, I think that it may have hurt him.
The New York literati take him for granted. He still lacks some major awards, all of which he deserves. In the meantime, here is our reward for having Vonnegut in our midst: I spoke with him yesterday by phone from Los Angeles.
RF: I’ve been thinking about you since the talk of war has heated up recently.
KV: What happens on the ground is never spoken of, the number of people we kill with our unmanned kamikazes. The hawks would like to say we’re cowards, and can’t take casualties and all that, but it’s the inflicting of casualties that’s horrifying.
But this has become quite acceptable in modern warfare apparently — to kill a hell of a lot of innocent people in the process of getting one bad guy. And also I think this war is a very bad idea because it will never stop.
RF: President Bush appeals to the World War II generation….
KV: One of the great American tragedies is to have participated in a just war. It’s been possible for politicians and movie-makers to encourage us we’re always good guys. The Second World War absolutely had to be fought. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. But we never talk about the people we kill. This is never spoken of.
RF: I just saw The Pianist, Roman Polanski‘s memoir of the Warsaw ghetto. When the main character finally emerges from hiding, Warsaw is destroyed. The first thing I thought of was you in Dresden.
KV: Warsaw’s condition was particularly interesting. German engineers undermined all the prominent buildings. That’s why there was nothing left. They wanted a Slavic capital.
RF: Are you amazed that you lived through the devastation of Dresden?
KV: No. I think I was the luckiest guy in the world. I wouldn’t have missed it. I got to see so much.
RF: Are you surprised that Slaughterhouse-Five is still so popular? Do you still get mail?
KV: My fan mail is the size of Eddie Fisher‘s, I think.
RF: Do people write to you as sort of armchair Kilgore Trouts, experts on things?
KV: These people are called schizophrenics. [Laughing.] They know all about the flying saucers.
RF: Seriously, your work has lasted. My friend still teaches a course on you in her high school.
KV: It’s just like going to Las Vegas. Maybe you win and maybe you don’t. I wrote what I had to write for whatever reasons. Apparently it was my destiny to write as I have, and yes we found readers.
Do I have a survivor’s syndrome after the Dresden firestorm? I have a survivor’s syndrome about all the wonderful writers I knew who ended in neglect and abject poverty.
RF: You’re thinking of people like your old friend Richard Yates [the great novelist and short story writer, author of Revolutionary Road]?
KV: Of course … In one book I told about a guy who rebuilt my house up in Cape Cod. He did the whole damn thing, put the footings in and the foundation, and when I asked him how he did it, he said he didn’t know.
I look at the list of books I’ve written and it’s not much of an output. I’m completely in print and how the hell I did it, I don’t know.
RF: Is there one book you’re more partial to than the others?
KV: The flagship of my little fleet is Cat’s Cradle.
RF: Personally, I find myself thinking of Norman Mushari from God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater all the time. I see a lot of Musharis in my line of work.
KV: They’re called lawyers, I think.
RF: They’re sneaky lawyers.
KV: Thinking of Mushari, I’ll tell you about a terrific book. It’s called The Mask of Sanity. It’s a medical textbook that’s out of print written by Dr. Hervey Cleckley, now dead.
And this book should be brought into print. It’s about psychopathic personalities.
This is certainly a symptom of what these executives at Enron and other places are like — psychopathic personalities. They have no conscience. They know the consequences of their actions and do not care.
RF: Are you actually writing another book?
KV: I am trying. I didn’t expect to live this long. As an actuarial matter, novelists and short-story writers do their best work when they’re young.
RF: But I loved Timequake. I was very disappointed when you said that was it.
KV: That’s friendly, thank you.
RF: Well, I mean it, and I think your fans will be thrilled to hear you’re still working. Happy birthday, Kurt.
KV: You know what they say. [Taking a beat]. If you think I’m a mess, you should see what Mozart looks like by now.
Reviewing Mel Gibson’s “Fatman” is easy enough, like shooting fish in a barrel. It’s a terrible movie, a piece of junk that shouldn’t be experienced by anyone. Even airplane passengers should be spared. But here it is anyway.
The real insult of “Fatman” — in which Gibson plays a curmudgeonly Kris Kringle — is that they’ve cast a black woman to play Mrs. Kringle to prove Gibson isn’t a racist. This is the height of cynicism. The exceptionally gifted Marianne Jean-Baptiste, perhaps choosing a payday over common sense, has taken the role. You wish that when she got the offer her agent had called Shonda Rhimes and said “I need work or I’ll have to do this.”
Gibson, of course, is infamously known for making racist, anti-Semitic, and misogynistic remarks not only to police officers in a DUI arrest, but to his ex-girlfriend, years later, who taped him. He is a reprehensible human.
“Fatman” is written and directed by a pair of brothers, Ian Nelms and Eshom Nelms, who will not be confused with other famous siblings who co-direct movies. They aren’t Coens, Dardennes, or even Safdies. Their movie is a shrill piece of junk with no redeeming features.
Here’s the plot: a wealthy, very obnoxious 12 year old hires a deranged hit man to kill Santa Claus. The 12 year old boy, Chance Hurstfield, had better go to school because he’s not going to be a professional actor. (I never want to see him again.) In one scene, the boy and the hit man kidnap a girl in his class and attempt to torture her over winning a science fair. This is not a joke. They’re serious.
The hit man (Walton Goggins) hates Santa anyway, so he obliges. Meantime, the US military has hired Santa and his elves to help them do something unclear during his off season. Again, the film is not funny or tongue in cheek. There is a lot of violence and killing.
You can tell there wasn’t much budget. Everything looks cheap. The so-called “elves” themselves verge on a racist joke. By making this movie, Gibson has doubled down on all his criticisms. With his bushy gray beard and craggy appearance, it’s as if he’s staring at the audience screaming, “Yeah, I give up. I’m just what you imagined. Stuff it!” He’s destroyed his career. When Goggins finally does appear to have killed him, there’s a sense of relief.
No real director will work with Gibson, so he’s down to either making his own movie or hiring people like the Nelmses. He should really choose another option, and not make any more movies. In the meantime, we have the option of not watching them.
This comes as little surprise but Jeffrey Toobin has been fired from The New Yorker.
The magazine conducted an investigation after Toobin was seen pleasuring himself during a Zoom call with New Yorker and NPR staff members. It turns out he got bored and flipped to a porn site and forgot to mute the video/audio on the New Yorker call.
He was immediately suspended from the literary magazine. He was also put on a voluntary leave at CNN, where’s the legal analyst. Will CNN finish him, too? It’s likely. It’s hard to imagine Toobin on panels on live TV where this come come up.
“I am writing to share with you that our investigation regarding Jeffrey Toobin is complete, and as a result, he is no longer affiliated with our company,” read a memo from Stan Duncan, Condé Nast’s chief people officer. The Daily Beast obtained the internal memo.
What a fall from grace for Toobin, who basically had it made in New York media circles. He’d even survived a scandal involving an affair and a pregnant mistress (he denied fathering the baby). Toobin is married to Amy Bennett McIntosh since 1986, although it’s equally hard to imagine she will continue with him after this. The Toobins have two adult children in addition to the 12 year old son Toobin fathered with the daughter of CNN’s Jeff Greenfield but wanted aborted back in 2008.
Toobin wrote on Twitter:
I was fired today by @NewYorker after 27 years as a Staff Writer. I will always love the magazine, will miss my colleagues, and will look forward to reading their work.
— Jeffrey Toobin (@JeffreyToobin) November 11, 2020
Nicole Kidman has really struck gold with “The Undoing.”
Even though Nielsen screwed up the monitoring of Sunday night’s ratings, HBO tells me Episode 3 went through the roof. According to them, viewership Sunday night totaled 1.7 million across the linear premiere, two replays and digital, up 18% from episode 2 and 21% from the series premiere on Oct. 25. Viewing for the first episode has quickly passed 6 million.
Not bad. “The Undoing” is very different than Kidman’s previous HBO hit, “Big Little Lies.” This is a murder mystery, not social commentary. So many pundits and reviewers tried to turn it into that, and then double down on criticism. We are living in a strange time in which any fiction is instantly turned into a flashpoint. No one knows how to enjoy an old fashioned whodunit anymore.
I don’t know who killed Hugh Grant’s mistress in “The Undoing” because I’ve not been given the final episode yet. But just about every character is a candidate. And since the audience is growing week by week, I think viewers must be hooked. And PS this miniseries is going to get a ton of Golden Globe awards. It’s a no-brainer. (And a brainy one at that!)
Talk about bad timing!
At the exact moment the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s lame induction ceremony was starting in Cleveland, Joe Biden was coming to the microphone in Wilmington, Delaware.
What do you think people watched? The HBO special or President-elect Biden making his victory speech?
Uh. That’s right. Fewer people watched the virtual RRHOF ceremony than saw the farm report last Saturday at 8pm.
The Hall special managed to find just 283,000 viewers. Biden? North of 25 million. Oh well.
Maybe it was the inductees: Depeche Mode, The Doobie Brothers, Whitney Houston, Nine Inch Nails, The Notorious B.I.G., T-Rex, and Ahmet Ertegun Award honorees Jon Landau and Irving Azoff. Three are dead (Whitney, Biggie, T Rex). The Doobie Brothers were 10 to 15 years too late. Depeche Mode? Ok. Nine Inch Nails? Really? Landau and Azoff certainly deserved it.
But the RRHOF induction ceremony is largely irrelevant. So many great acts from the 70s are missing that it’s become kind of a joke.
Anyway, it’s over. Again. It will start all over again soon. Who’s not in? Sting as a solo act, Carole King ditto, Carly Simon, Billy Preston, Todd Rundgren, Rufus and Carla Thomas, J Geils Band, Motown great Mary Wells, and so on and so forth.
“Saturday Night Live” scored HUGE ratings this past weekend with host Dave Chappelle and musical guest Foo Fighters.
The total viewers came to just over 9 million with 2.62 million of those in the key demo.
I told you this would happen.
Despite being delayed because of a college football game, “SNL” scored so high because of the Biden-Harris 8pm victory speech. The audience was salivating to see what the show would do. Luckily, it was a top notch episode.
According to NBC PR : “This is the highest “SNL” 18-49 rating in three-and-a-half years, since May 13, 2017 (with host Melissa McCarthy & musical guest Haim, 2.74). Excluding the historic Dec. 21, 2019 telecast hosted by Eddie Murphy with musical guest Lizzo (9.981 million), it’s the most-watched “SNL” since that same May 13, 2017 telecast (10.382 million).”
So it’s the 2nd highest audience in three years. Which is pretty damn good. Well played, Lorne Michaels!
Just to underscore: this episode had the third highest rating in at least a decade. That’s how pumped the audience was to see the end of Trump on “SNL.”
I’m a little bemused by the NY Post story today that George Stephanopolous wants to host “Jeopardy!” Maybe for a day, but George already hosts “Good Morning America” every morning on ABC and has to be available for the serious stuff on ABC Evening News. Plus, “Jeopardy!” is produced in Los Angeles with “Wheel of Fortune.” They’re a package.
So, seriously: sources tell me that Alex Trebek’s successor is likely Ken Jennings, considered the Greatest of All Time GOAT player of the game. Jennings was hired last January as a consulting producer to groom him for the job. My sources say everyone connected with the show, all the producers, “love him.”
It makes sense. Jennings is already part of the family. Since Trebek died, he’s expressed his deep sorrow and admiration for Alex. Trebek remains on the air with new shows through Christmas. My guess is that after two weeks of holiday reruns, Jennings will be announced as the new host in early January 2021.
President-elect Joe Biden has announced the members of his COVID task force. And guess what? They are all doctors and scientists.
Not included: the guy from “My Pillow” or anyone from Clorox.
Dr. Anthony Fauci can’t join until Biden and Kamala Harris are sworn in on January 20th. He’s still the head of the NIAID and he’s still got to deal with Trump and Pence until then. Dr. Deborah Birx is shopping for scarves.
Here are the members of the task force. Note: this is what it means when you say “I’ll get the best people.”
· Ezekiel Emanuel, chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
· Atul Gawande, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a professor at Harvard Medical School who is a prolific author.
· Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
· Eric Goosby, global AIDS coordinator under President Barack Obama and professor of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine.
· Celine R. Gounder, clinical assistant professor of medicine and infectious diseases at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine.
· Julie Morita, executive vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a philanthropy focused on health issues.
· Loyce Pace, president and executive director of the Global Health Council, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization dedicated to global health issues.
· Robert Rodriguez, professor of emergency medicine at the UCSF School of Medicine.
Rebecca Katz, director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center, and Beth Cameron, director for global health security and biodefense on the White House National Security Council during the Obama administration, are serving as advisers to the transition task force.
It’s good news and not exactly bad news for Sting’s legions of fans.
The superstar rocker was supposed to release his “Duets” album at the end of this month. But with many configurations of CDs and LPs, “Duets”– featuring Annie Lennox, Mary J. Blige, Eric Clapton, Sam Moore, etc — has been delayed until March 2021. His PR says there were manufacturing delays due to the pandemic, which is all too common right now.
The good news is that Sting will appear tomorrow night– Tuesday, November 10th — on the 15th annual Taste of Hope cancer charity fundraiser. This annual event is usually in person at the Metropolitan Pavilion on West 18th St. A hundred or more four star restaurants serve up their delicious fare to a packed room of donors.
Alas, the event has moved online tomorrow night, where donors will get to see Sting perform one of his hits live from Italy. WCBS-TV’s Chris Wragge is hosting as usual. Many celebs will make appearances including comic Mario Cantone, and actors Giancarlo Esposito, Harry Lennix, Amy Ryan, Peter Onorati, Alyssa Reiner and David Alan Basche, and even football great Harry Carson.
The event honors chef Michael White — of New York’s Marea, Ai Fiori, Osteria Morini, Nicoletta, Costata and The Butterfly — and Harlem restaurant star chef Joseph JJ Johnson, who’s got the very popular “Field Trip” with locations in Rock Center and Queens.
Taste of Hope has already raised more than half of its goal this year, and there’s a bargain busting silent auction going on right now. (Everyone knows the best deals are at silent auctions.)
As for Sting, fans may have to wait for that “Duets” album but this performance tomorrow night is special! Plus, it’s for a good cause.